14 March 2012

Good news. GLAAD has launched a new initiative to educate the media about the history and positions of prominent anti-gay activists. The "Commentator Accountability Project" has the stated goal to deliver "critical information about frequent anti-gay interviewees into the hands of newsrooms, editors, hosts and reporters."

Audiences need to be aware that when they’re not talking to the mainstream media, these voices are comparing the LGBT people to Nazi Germany, predicting that equal treatment of LGBT people will lead to the total collapse of society, and even making accusations of satanic influence.

The Commentator Accountability Project is bringing all of these statements to light, while calling attention to the sentiments behind them. We will show that the commentators who are most often asked to opine on issues like marriage equality or non-discrimination protections do not accurately represent the "other side" of those issues. They represent nothing but extreme animus towards the entire LGBT community.

"Hate is not an expert opinion. In most cases, news outlets invite reputable experts to speak on the subject at hand, but when talking about LGBT issues, open hostility and anti-LGBT bias seems to be all the credibility required. This project holds these so-called 'pundits' accountable for the extreme anti-LGBT rhetoric they continue to spread. ... These activists have the right to recite their anti-LGBT talking points, but it is important to expose the questionable and often hostile rhetoric that passes as punditry when so-called 'experts' speak out against the lives of LGBT people on the air or in print."

Good As You's Jeremy Hooper worked as a consultant with GLAAD on this project. Bravo and congrats to all.

Thousands of Christian conservatives spent 12 hours Saturday praying and fasting in front of the state Capitol at a gathering organizers described as spiritual repentance "when there is no hope for a nation." The daylong religious event was led by Lou Engle as well as other pastors and speakers to protest gay marriage, pornography and abortion. Many of those attending slapped red "Life" stickers over their shirts and set up blankets and folding chairs facing a large stage with banners that read: "Only One Hope God."

People close to the front of the stage held up their hands when called to prayer. They jumped and danced to musical performances between sermons. The gathering filled the west lawn of the state Capitol and hundreds of people spilled into the next block, but the rest of Capitol Mall's five-block-long lawn went unused despite large screens and barricades set up for the occasion.

Engle, Mike Huckabee and other social conservatives blasted Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who declared Proposition 8 unconstitutional in a landmark ruling last month, reports the Sacramento Bee.

Among the speakers was Tony Perkins, a leader of the religious right and head of the Washington lobbying group the Family Research Council.
Perkins railed against U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker for overturning Proposition 8, California's ban on same-sex marriage. He said Walker's ruling diminished the legal rights of religious people opposed to gay marriage.
"If (the ruling) stands, in one generation we will have gone from banning the Bible in public schools to banning religious beliefs in society," Perkins said. The event's organizer, conservative Kansas City evangelist Lou Engle, urged the crowd to "break the altar of homosexual marriage."

The event was free of charge but people were "regularly asked to put donations in the 'offering stations.'"

Not on their prayer agenda: Hunger, poverty, homelessness, human rights, domestic abuse or HIV/AIDS. However, the Sacramento Bee adds the crowd was also asked to pray for "clergy addicted to pornography, bisexual women—even middle-aged men who play video games."

"That's junk science," slammed Boies. "What we saw at trial is that it's very easy for people who want to deprive gay and lesbian citizens of the right to vote [sic] to make all sorts of statements and campaign literature, or in debates where they can't be cross-examined. ... It's easy to say that on television. But a witness stand is a lonely place to lie.

"Carcieri vetoed the measure because he said the law already addresses actions "motivated by racial, religious, sexual orientation, gender or disability prejudice." ... Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders encouraged LGBT Rhode Islanders to urge their legislators to override Carcieri’s veto. 'It’s a simple bill but critical for protecting transgender citizens from violence and harassment - protection all Rhode Islanders deserve,' said GLAD executive director Lee Swislow in a statement. Other LGBT activists criticized the governor’s veto. 'The governor of [RI] has once again shown his disdain for LGBT Rhode Islanders, especially his utter lack of caring about transgender people who face immense harassment and violence based on how they present their gender,' said Susan Heroux of Queer Action. 'One wonders what the governor would do if one of his grandchildren turns out to be gay or transgender. Would he continue to not care about us?' The Family Research Council, however, praised Carcieri’s actions."

House Speaker Gordon D. Fox, who is black and openly gay, criticized the governor's action but added "no decision has been made" on a veto override.

"According to the FRC's official lobbying report for the first quarter of 2010, they paid two of their henchmen $25,000 to lobby Congress against approving a resolution denouncing Uganda's plan to execute homosexuals. The resolution passed in the Senate on April 13th, but remains languishing in the House almost four months after being referred to the Foreign Affairs Committee. Did the FRC's lobbying kill it? As we learned last week with Malawi, international pressure CAN sway even the most virulently anti-gay government....Among the other items they lobbied against are the overturn of DADT and DOMA, which is to be expected. But it's almost astounding, almost, that they would lobby the members of Congress against denouncing the death penalty for LGBT people."

FRC's hatred of gays was already well established, but this new data point is extreme and outrageous. Perkins' should be confronted with his desire to kill gay people the next time he is on CNN. That should be any day now, since the network has chosen him as their go-to anti-gay talking head.

18 March 2010

The U.S. Postal Service temporarily blocks the bulk mailing of a four-page newsletter from the rabidly anti-gay Family Research Institute. The newsletter opposed repealing the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy and postal inspectors said the content was "obscene" and "incited force-able resistance against the government", reports Colorado Springs' KKTV.

The four-page newsletter includes research and an interview with a female enlistee recalling her experiences with homosexuals in basic training. The Family Research Institute says the content was acceptable and the postal service violated its freedom of speech. "We're Americans,” said FRI Chairman Dr. Paul Cameron. “Where does the post office get off enforcing Obama's rules and thinking, on us, because we disagree with them."Local postal officials sent the newsletter to Washington for review. Wednesday morning, the United States Postal Service Pricing and Classifications board overruled the local interpretation that the newsletter violated guidelines for a non-profit bulk mailing rate. FRI will now be allowed to mail out their newsletter at a non-profit rate, which is 3 cents less than the standard mailing rate.

The FRI's mailing on "gays-in-the-military" include the graphic rants of a retired Navy captain who encountered a "homosexual prostitution ring" on his ship ... in the late 1960s. Not sure is this supposed to be a warning or a "True Confession". Read it AFTER THE JUMP ....

The Louisiana senator has introduced an amendment to the omnibus spending bill before the Senate to drastically cut funding for family planning programs. Vitter’s amendment states that "none of the funds appropriated under this Act shall be made available to Planned Parenthood for any purpose under title X of the Public Health Service Act."

02 December 2008

Happy holidays from Charlene Cothran! The "ex-gay" (or is it merely celibate?) and former lesbian publisher of Venus Magazine, once the leading black-oriented lesbian magazine in the nation, now has officially crossed to the dark side by announcing the creation of an ex-gay ministry to "prevent homosexuality in today's youth."

Cotharn details the plans for her ministry at the former virtual home of Venus—now devoted to ex-gay propaganda—and in a holiday-themed fundraising email blast because "preservation of the family is what Thanksgiving celebrates."

I am also thankful to introduce The EVIDENCE Ministry, Inc. God has been gracious, merciful and patient with us all. He has allowed our talented Board of Directors, whom we will introduce soon, to carefully lay the foundation for a loving ministry whose mission is to reach those who want to be free from homosexuality with the gospel of Jesus Christ, to offer tools to prevent homosexuality in today's youth and to offer hope & spiritual healing to parents and family members of gays and lesbians.

The punchline is Cothran's appeal for your dollars. "Our prayer is that God will send 100 people to make a one-time donation of $300 or more or to donate $30 a month for one year."

Cothran wants substantial donations to fund a multi-platform broadcast ministry—with her as the host of course—on radio, DVD and internet. "Charlene Cothran has elevated her rabid capitalist 'ex-gay' charades from a magazine to a 'ministry'," writes Alicia Banks, who forwarded the email to my inbox. "Same twisted joke. New toxic punchline."

Banks is spot-on. The Evidence Ministry Inc is a business. Apparently it is not recognized as a tax deductible church or ministry—at least not yet—and the fundraising appeal and its webpage do not say the ministry is recognized by the IRS as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) charity. Cothran claims she "will use 100% of your Year-End donation to achieve our ministry goals." We'll have to take her word for it.

Cothran's reinvention as a broadcast ex-gay "should be a treat," writes Clay Cane, who interviewed Cothran
last year when she famously boasted of being "freed from the bondage
of lesbianism." Clay compares Cothran's ex-gay-for-pay ministry to "those modeling agencies that are advertised in the back of the Village Voice—if they have to ask you for money, it isn't legit."

We decry this decision by justices unelected and unaccountable to the
people, and will do whatever is necessary to oppose it. Not only have
these judges knowingly deprived Connecticut children of a mother or a
father, but they have usurped the role of the legislators to create
law. Short of a federal marriage-protection amendment, marriage can
only be truly protected by defining it in state constitutions. I pray
the citizens of California, Arizona and Florida will seize the
opportunity next month to settle this marriage crisis in their states
once and for all.

In Dobson's warped alternate universe, it's not massive unemployment, a shrinking economy, or lack of access to health care that endangers families. It is the same sex "marriage crisis." Moving on to more evangelical hyperbole.

This decision puts marriage at risk all across the nation and
highlights the need for a Marriage Protection Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution. It is imperative both Presidential candidates address the
problems created by four activist judges in Connecticut. We call on
Senators John McCain and Barack Obama to explain what they would do as
President addressing the issue of same-sex marriage and articulating
their criteria for ensuring that judges they appoint follow the law of
the land and not legislate from the bench.

McCain's already on record slamming so-called "judicial activism"—he does it all the time—and supports the marriage amendments in California and Arizona. With only four weeks to the election and a scramble for moerate voters, they probably won't get much more out of him.

15 September 2008

Over the weekend at the Values Voters Summit, conservative activists eagerly bought boxes of "Obama Waffles" that featured several racist caricatures of Sen. Barack Obama on the front, back and top flap. The Democratic presidential nominee is depicted with "popping eyes and big, thick lips" and another image depicts Obama wearing an Arab-like headdress on its top flap. "Point toward Mecca for tastier waffles!" reads the instructions.

In a video interview, the good old boys claim they were just "having a little fun during the election season" and denied the caricatures were racist or offensive. Whitlock sais, "'We had some people mention that to us, but you think of Newman's Own or Emeril's—there are tons and tons of personality-branded food products on the market."

Fools. Take a memo. Newman's Own features an image of Paul Newman, not someone else morphed into a racist caricature. At least this incident confirms what we have said many times: The so-called "family values" right wing believes racism is a "family value." It is not. Racial and ethnic intolerance are not American values.